Browsing Faculty of Arts and Sciences by Keyword "behavior"
Now showing items 1-20 of 21
-
A Novel Olfactory Circuit Promotes Social Learning
(2024-03-12)To acquire resources and avoid predation, wild animals must be capable of fast learning. One form of fast learning, the Social Transmission of Food Preferences (STFP), enables mice to trust unfamiliar food odors after ... -
Adaptive Locomotor Behavior in Larval Zebrafish
(Frontiers Media SA, 2011)In this study we report that larval zebrafish display adaptive locomotor output that can be driven by unexpected visual feedback. We develop a new assay that addresses visuomotor integration in restrained larval zebrafish. ... -
Area-specific temporal control of corticospinal motor neuron differentiation by COUP-TFI
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010)Transcription factors with gradients of expression in neocortical progenitors give rise to distinct motor and sensory cortical areas by controlling the area-specific differentiation of distinct neuronal subtypes. However, ... -
Bet-hedging, seasons and the evolution of behavioral diversity in Drosophila
(2015)Organisms use various strategies to cope with fluctuating environmental conditions. In diversified bet-hedging, a single genotype exhibits phenotypic heterogeneity with the expectation that some individuals will survive ... -
Control of Turning Behaviors by Spinal Projection Neurons in the Larval Zebrafish
(2012-09-17)This thesis aims to examine how hindbrain spinal projection neurons (SPNs), namely RoV3, MiV1 and MiV2 control tail undulations during turning behaviors. I find that phototaxic turns differ from forward swims by an increased ... -
Evolution, Genetics and Ecology of Burrowing Behavior in Deer Mice (Genus Peromyscus)
(2013-02-08)Behavioral differences among closely related species can result from adaptation via natural selection, and this is especially true of innately expressed behavior that shows evidence of complex design or function. A major ... -
The genetic basis of behavior in the blind Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus
(2013-10-18)In recent years, considerable progress has been made towards understanding the genetic basis of the evolution of morphological traits. In contrast, relatively little is known about how behavioral traits evolve. Astyanax ... -
Human Adaptation to the Control of Fire
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2010)Charles Darwin attributed human evolutionary success to three traits. Our social habits and anatomy were important, he said, but the critical feature was our intelligence, because it led to so much else, including such ... -
Individual Differences in Holistic Processing Predict the Own-Race Advantage in Recognition Memory
(Public Library of Science, 2013)Individuals are consistently better at recognizing own-race faces compared to other-race faces (other-race effect, ORE). One popular hypothesis is that this recognition memory ORE is caused by differential own- and other-race ... -
Inter-Identity Autobiographical Amnesia in Patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder
(Public Library of Science, 2012)Background: A major symptom of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID; formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) is dissociative amnesia, the inability to recall important personal information. Only two case studies have directly ... -
Monitoring Neural Activity with Bioluminescence during Natural Behavior
(Nature Publishing Group, 2010)Existing techniques for monitoring neural activity in awake, freely behaving vertebrates are invasive and difficult to target to genetically identified neurons. We used bioluminescence to non-invasively monitor the activity ... -
Navigational strategies underlying phototaxis in larval zebrafish
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2014)Understanding how the brain transforms sensory input into complex behavior is a fundamental question in systems neuroscience. Using larval zebrafish, we study the temporal component of phototaxis, which is defined as ... -
Optogenetics and Computer Vision for C. elegans Neuroscience and Other Biophysical Applications
(2012-07-19)This work presents optogenetics and real-time computer vision techniques to non-invasively manipulate and monitor neural activity with high spatiotemporal resolution in awake behaving Caenorhabditis elegans. These methods ... -
Prediction and Learning for Postural Control in Mice
(2023-06-01)Postural control is crucial for maintaining balance and body position in response to both self-generated and externally triggered perturbations. Studies in humans have shown that anticipation of predictable postural ... -
Prey Capture Behavior Evoked by Simple Visual Stimuli in Larval Zebrafish
(Frontiers Media SA, 2011)Understanding how the nervous system recognizes salient stimuli in the environment and selects and executes the appropriate behavioral responses is a fundamental question in systems neuroscience. To facilitate the ... -
Serotonergic neurons signal reward and punishment on multiple timescales
(eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, 2015)Serotonin's function in the brain is unclear. One challenge in testing the numerous hypotheses about serotonin's function has been observing the activity of identified serotonergic neurons in animals engaged in behavioral ... -
Sex-specific processing of social cues in the medial amygdala
(eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, 2014)Animal–animal recognition within, and across species, is essential for predator avoidance and social interactions. Despite its essential role in orchestrating responses to animal cues, basic principles of information ... -
Striatal dopamine structures spontaneous behavior across multiple timescales
(2024-01-03)Animals maneuver through the world by building elaborated, flexible sequences out of shorter, stereotyped actions. In the mammalian brain, monosynaptic and multi-synaptic circuits in cortico-striatal loops are thought to ... -
Switching Periodic Membranes via Pattern Transformation and Shape Memory Effect
(The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2012)We exploited mechanical instability in shape memory polymer (SMP) membranes consisting of a hexagonal array of micron-sized circular holes and demonstrated dramatic color switching as a result of pattern transformation. ... -
The rodent body language of ongoing pain
(2023-06-01)To understand the nature of and to develop rational treatments for pathological pain, effective animal models capturing features of pathological pain are needed. As non-verbal, animals cannot self-report pain sensation and ...